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Topic: Worried my son has autism.... (Read 1701 times)

My son is 3 and has very little words and the rest is babble. I know he should have been in speech therapy a long time ago, but the boys in his father's family spoke late. One of his brothers didn't speak until he was 4. I thought he would be like that... He is going to preschool soon where he will have speech therapy and OT...

Anyway, every time I try and do research on language delays, basically the only thing that pops up is autism.... It's everywhere... My son is also very hyper, always moving which I hear can be a sensory thing (another marker for autism).... Now I can't stop googling and have now started worrying about rare genetic syndromes like fragile x syndrome and fear he has mental retardation.... I know I way ahead of myself in that regard but I can't help it...

My son has autism, and he talked quite early. It's a series of things they will look at. There are a few very simple things you can do to rule out autism in a child of three.

1. Call him by name. Does he immediately look up or in the direction of the person calling his name? If not, how many times must you call him before he responds

2. Does he play "pretend?" - If you give him a cell phone, will he pick it up and pretend to 'talk' like mommy? If you put him in a play kitchen, will he pretend to cook, or does he just bang things around?

3. lastly, does he have something called, joint attention? This is when he will look at something, and look to you, and then look back at the thing, to see if you are also paying attention to it. Does he point things out just to show you how "cool" something is? Not becuase he wants you to do something?

If he does each of those things, chances are pretty stinkin good you have a typical kiddo....

My son has autism, and he talked quite early. It's a series of things they will look at. There are a few very simple things you can do to rule out autism in a child of three.

1. Call him by name. Does he immediately look up or in the direction of the person calling his name? If not, how many times must you call him before he responds

He always responds.

2. Does he play "pretend?" - If you give him a cell phone, will he pick it up and pretend to 'talk' like mommy? If you put him in a play kitchen, will he pretend to cook, or does he just bang things around?

He pretends to talk on phones. He doesn't really have pretend toys. But he makes ''car noises'' when he plays with cars. Sometimes he take t hi gs like a pen or something and slides it around making car noises or holds it in the air and runs.. I'm not sure but I think he's pretending it's a car or plane.

3. lastly, does he have something called, joint attention? This is when he will look at something, and look to you, and then look back at the thing, to see if you are also paying attention to it. Does he point things out just to show you how "cool" something is? Not becuase he wants you to do something?

He plays with us by chasing, wrestling, tickling, and hand clap games. He likes to play catch and basket ball.

He does try to get our attention with his activity.

A lot of times he brings us things like a toy car or some other object and gives it to us while ''talking''. I don't know what he wants us to do with it usually because I have no idea what he is trying to say unless it's something obvious like a ball. He often wants to share his food with us. He takes his spoon or whaever it is he is eating and holds it to our mouths going ''ahhh'' (open). Sometimes he will go and get food when he isn't even eating and tries to feed us, not wanting to eat himself I don't know why he does that .If we accept his offer he goes ''Mmmmm yum''

When he does something he is proud of he looks at us and claps his hands going ''yaaay!''. If we do something he likes ( like making a basket while plaing basketball) he will either cap and say yay or gives us a high five. Mostly he just claps, though.

Are these joint attention?

If he does each of those things, chances are pretty stinkin good you have a typical kiddo....

Ahhh yes, I had this same fear about my oldest. When she was 3-4 years old, she would not speak to ppl that she didn't know - wouldn't look them in the face even, she has these little quirks as well. My father in law thought she was a select mute b/c she wouldn't speak to him, she wouldn't speak to any man besides her dad. I took her to her pediatrician with my concerns and her Dr. wanted to know why we made the appt.!! She said all kids have their little quirks and some are just really shy. She was right, my daughter is 7 now and at times I have to ask her to STOP talking! lol I would make an appt. with your childs pedi to ease your mind.

I am wondering if he has adhd. I was diagnosed as a child at around 5 years old.

I have been doing some research on sensory processing disorder. I looked through a huge checklist and I ticked a huge, huge amount for myself.... I am wondering if He and I have it, and I was misdiagnosed as a child... They didn't know much about spd back then...

I am a teacher and have had many students attend speech therapy that are not autistic. They were just late talkers. The fact that your child responds and interacts is a good sign.

Also, have you ever had his hearing checked. My nephew took forever to talk. Come to find out he couldn't hear. Once he got tubes he started talking and hasn't stopped since!

He has not... He can hear at least somewhat.... He can here when he dad opens the door when he gets home... If we yell from another room for him, he comes.... Can hearing loss really go undetected for this long?

This thread is a little mind easing for me. My son will be 3 in June and doesn't talk. He has said Mom and Dad but not all that often. If I call his name I would say 97% of the time he at least looks to see if he is interested in why I'm calling him.He plays well with his sister who DOES NOT know what quite is. She'll be 5.He puts those wooden puzzles together quickly and loves playing his sisters Nabi.My fears were very much like yours. I'm making him an appointment to review te situation. He has been covering his ears so I am wondering if there is an issue there that is causing the delay.

He has not... He can hear at least somewhat.... He can here when he dad opens the door when he gets home... If we yell from another room for him, he comes.... Can hearing loss really go undetected for this long?

I would say it's a possibility. My sister had no idea my nephew couldn't hear clearly. He responded to his name, doors, yelling, etc. But he couldn't hear certain pitches or certain speech sounds. Once he had tubes she couldn't believe how much he reacted and responded to things that she thought he could hear.

He has not... He can hear at least somewhat.... He can here when he dad opens the door when he gets home... If we yell from another room for him, he comes.... Can hearing loss really go undetected for this long?

I would say it's a possibility. My sister had no idea my nephew couldn't hear clearly. He responded to his name, doors, yelling, etc. But he couldn't hear certain pitches or certain speech sounds. Once he had tubes she couldn't believe how much he reacted and responded to things that she thought he could hear.

Thanks. I was a little worried that he couldn't hear at first but I dismissed the idea. He is always congested and breathes through his mouth. I also noticed he always is sticking his finger in his ear. Like its itchy or something. I put it down to allergies....

A good friend of mine's son was like that, but he didn't even babble, he just wouldn't talk! Or he'd say, "NO" or something. If I talked to him he'd just STARE at me and not respond. They were from out of state and when they came here I took them to the beach - the kid wouldn't leave the blanket, he got REALLY upset if he got sand on himself, his mother had to take every bit of sand off him (I know autistic children will have a very acute sense of some kind and get upset, I was CONVINCED he was autistic!) The next year when they came over this kid was a totally normal 4 year old - talking like he should, etc! Today he is about 17 or 18 - VERY intelligent young man.

I have had this worry with both my children and still have it sometimes. Neither have had speech delay but they have other quirks. My son who is almost three is very sensory seeking and I too have wondered about spd with him. My daughter who is four is a very sensitive and rather emotional child and is very afraid of lots of things, particularly loud noises. However both my children are friendly and interactive. I try to be reassured by that, and it sounds as though your son is the same. There are so many scary things out there about autism. If you google it it seems as though pretty much everything is a sign!

Some kids are just slow. That doesn't mean they're stupid, or autistic, it just means they need more time than average to develop. My kids were both late talks. Other than being slightly behind on reading and writing (I think that goes hand and hand with talking delays), they are completely normal.